


i draw you out (to fall into me)

by kangtv (galacticnik)



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, M/M, mentioned Kim Jaehwan/Ha Sungwoon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-10
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2019-02-09 16:34:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12892071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galacticnik/pseuds/kangtv
Summary: Seongwoo didn't ask for a new roommate, but Kang Daniel worms his way into his life (and his heart) anyway.





	i draw you out (to fall into me)

**Author's Note:**

> **FOR PROMPT #210** : Seungwoo wakes up one night to find a mysterious stranger breaking into his room. Turns out he's been living in his house for a few months now. Cue Seungwoo living his life with a human peach as his new roommate. 
> 
> unbeta'd, with minimal editing, so i apologize in advance for any typos or awkward grammar. 
> 
> this probably doesn't have as much crack as you were looking for, OP, but i gave it my best shot and i hope you enjoy it nonetheless!

Partway through their mid-week study session, Seongwoo throws his pen down and buries his face in his hands. “I can’t do this anymore,” he groans, voice muffled by his fingers. Despite Jaehwan’s complaints that he can’t make out a word Seongwoo is saying, he refuses to raise his head. “Jaehwan, I’m losing my mind.”

“I hate homework too,” Jaehwan says seriously. They share a grand total of zero classes together, but Seongwoo holds Jaehwan accountable for all of his assignments and vice versa. All that usually entails is making sure neither of them succumbs to the siren song of procrastination, and the best way to do that is to make sure they’re studying at gunpoint. Well, maybe not _gunpoint_ , but Sungwoon’s periodic nagging when he pops by to check on his boyfriend sure feels like it.

“No, that’s not what I have a problem with.” He pauses and lifts his head, bleary-eyed. “I mean, it’s _kind_ of relevant, but not what I’m talking about at this specific moment in time.” Seongwoo’s current levels of stress have very little to do with school for once. Something else entirely is occupying his attention right now. It is the reason he’s braving the filth of Jaehwan and Sungwoon’s apartment, and the reason why he’s spent the five out of seven days in the past week away from _home sweet home._

Jaehwan stares at him for a second, then closes his books and leans back in his chair. “Okay okay, time for a five minute break.” He laces his hands together behind his head and grins. “So, tell dear ole Dr. Kim about how you lost your marbles. I’m all ears.”

Seongwoo scoffs. “Since when?” But he’s the fool here for having brought his problems to lay at Jaehwan’s feet, of all people. In retrospect, this a dumb idea, but with Jonghyun gone, his list of ‘best friends he can talk about random shit with’ is, well, just Jaehwan. “But fine. Can I lie on the couch for this therapy session?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to sit on that couch.” Jaehwan wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.

Seongwoo tries to phase out of existence. Doesn’t work. _This_ is why he doesn’t like spending time with friends who happen to be fucking each other on the regular in their apartment. It can be hazardous. “Does Taehyun inspect this place with a black light when he comes over? Because he really should.”

Jaehwan makes a face. “Anyways.” Not the most elegant of pivots, but Seongwoo is grateful for it. He doesn’t want to think about that subject for longer than he needs to, not when there are more pressing matters at hand. Jaehwan nudges him with his foot. “What’s up? You need to get something of your chest or did you do something stupid again?” Seongwoo knows what he’s going to say next the minute the shit-eating grin begins to form on Jaehwan’s lips. “Like that time you slept with that guy from Comic Con. Excuse me, the _Wookiee_ from—”

“I hate you.” Friends shouldn’t hold their friends’ momentary lapses of judgement against them. In his limited defense, the Wookiee was better looking under the costume as far as Seongwoo can remember. “None of the above,” he says, ignoring Jaehwan’s psychotic laugh. “I’m just freaking out a little.” Sighing, Seongwoo presses the heels of his palms to his eyes as he tries to think of how best to phrase this. “Alright, so you know how I’ve been spending a lot of time here and at Taehyun’s?”

Jaehwan’s eyes narrow. “Yeah… Been meaning to talk to you about that, by the way. Sungwoon and I love you, but we need our alone time too, you feel? And you’re _seriously_ cramping our style here.”

“Sorry.” Seongwoo grimaces. If had a choice, he wouldn’t be attempting to couch surf his way through the semester when he has a perfectly nice place ten minutes away from campus, but desperate times call for desperate measures. “The thing is, I don’t really want to be at home.” Jaehwan waits patiently for him to elaborate. “Because I feel like there’s another presence in the apartment with me.”

This is it: the mic drop moment.

Jaehwan blinks. “That’s called a roommate,” he says plainly. “You got yourself a roommate there, man.”

“Jonghyun is on that exchange program to Japan, remember?” Seongwoo’s roommate is attending Hirosaki University for the next eight months, living out his sad little weeaboo dreams in the land of cherry blossoms. Or so he tells himself to feel better about it. Truthfully, he’s insanely jealous of the opportunity and utterly miserable with Jonghyun. Despite Jonghyun’s anime obsession and weird quirks, he was Seongwoo’s best friend and a good roommate. He misses him. “I’m living alone, which is why I think I’m losing it.”

“ _Explain._ ”

“It’s just a sense.” He licks his lips. “It started off with the little stuff, mostly. Things being moved around, food disappearing from the fridge, beer cans piled up in recycling, that kind of shit. After a while things got really strange, like hearing doors slamming and footsteps in the middle of the night. Sometimes I can hear the water running too." It took a while to get used to it; some of the occurances are almost background noise now, but the water thing? Tangible, freaky, and reflected in his monthly utility bill. Seongwoo sifts and closes his eyes. "And then there are these pair of ratty sneakers lying near the entrance. I trip over them on occasion, but other times they just vanish on their own. I don’t even think they belong to me or Jonghyun. And I know vanishing sneakers shouldn’t be the hill I should die on, but they're proof that something else is  _there_."

It takes a long time for Jaehwan to speak. He sits back, absorbing Seongwoo’s hurried and almost manic spiel before saying, “Well,” he shifts in his seat, “I hate to break it to you, but it sounds like you’re haunted.”

Seongwoo’s shoulders slump. Of course Jaehwan would come to the very conclusion he’s been trying to avoid, but why not? It’s the only explanation that makes any kind of sense. “Haunted,” he repeats flatly, dragging both hands down his face. “ _Haunted._ I’m a good person. This shit should not be happening to me.”

“It’s like an episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved,” Jaehwan says suddenly, perking up. “Oh man, you should totally try catching some of this stuff on camera.”

“Are you kidding me? I’m never going back there.” When Jaehwan opens his mouth to protest, Seongwoo chucks a cushion at him. “And don’t tell me to chill. You don’t have to live with it. I, on the other hand, might die if I go back home. Via ghost. Murdered by a spectre. How fucking lame would that be?” His laughter is shaky and unsure. The thought of having a supernatural guest isn’t a pleasant one.

Jaehwan shoots him a couple of finger guns. “I’ll prepare a touching eulogy.” When Seongwoo doesn’t respond, he shuffles closer and puts a hand on his shoulder. “Look, jokes aside, you have to go back. Not because I’m kicking you out,” he adds quickly, “Though, yeah. I _am_ kicking you out. But still, face your fears and all that. Your place is fucking nice and what’s the point of paying that crazy high rent if you’re never going to stay there?”

While Jaehwan has a point, the thought of being killed in his sleep by some kind of walking nightmare overpowers it. Honestly, he expected more support from his friend on this, though Seongwoo recognizes the edge of desperation in his voice and frowns. “Did Sungwoon tell you to get rid of me?”

Jaehwan winces. “Kinda, yeah. We have plans this evening.”

“When I Die. Then You Will Realize,” Seongwoo intones.

“Send me a postcard from the afterlife,” Jaehwan snickers, then yelps and darts out of the living room when Seongwoo pounces on him.

 

* * *

 

“Hey demons, it’s me, ya boi.”

There’s no answer—not that he expects one. Seongwoo slips his shoes off and searches for the phantom sneakers at the entrance, but they aren't here anymore, having disappeared into what dimensional rip lost things fall into in this house. Jaehwan’s words pop back into his mind. _You’re haunted._ He’s been trying to grapple with this realization for the past hour and has come to the conclusion that Jaehwan is right. Ong Seongwoo is starring in his very own horror movie.

Running a hand through his hair, he opens the fridge and pulls last night’s box of leftover pizza out. Only one piece remains inside, a far cry from the three Seongwoo had so carefully saved for the next day. The vanishing food isn’t new, nor is the stack of clean dishes piled on the side of the sink. With a sigh, he puts them away and grabs a glass of water. “At least you clean up after yourself,” he says to no one. _The ghost_ , maybe. He wonders if it’ll be less inclined to continue harassing him if he talks to it.

Nothing happens. “Good talk,” he says before heading into his room. If it’s going to be that quiet, then maybe they can learn to live together. And maybe Seongwoo can get better at lying to himself so he can _almost_ believe that.

But it doesn’t last. He’s slipping in and out of sleep when he hears the creaking of a door opening, too loud and close for him to be comfortable with. Seongwoo burrows into his covers and tries to ignore it, but the sound is replaced by footsteps, then the light scraping of one of his drawers opening.

Seongwoo’s first coherent thought is, _get the fuck outta my room, Jonghyun_. Upon remembering that Jonghyun is gone, it switches to, _oh my god I’m going to die (can ghosts actually kill people? And what the hell does it want with my undies?)._

He holds his breath as he hears the drawer being pushed back, then his door shutting. Seongwoo barely has time to relax and process before the door opens yet again, but this time his eyes fly open at the sound to see a hulking shadow step into his room. It returns to the dresser and picks up something lying on top of it. Poking his head out from under the covers, Seongwoo throws a pillow at the shadow just to test things out. He expectes the pillow to land on the ground, but it ricochets off the shadow and ends up back on the bed. “OW, fuck, I’m sorry—“ the shadow yells.

Seongwoo rolls off the bed. _I have no mouth but I must scream?_ He’s pretty sure ghosts aren't supposed to speak. Or swear. Or feel pain. Seongwoo reaches over and switches his lamp on.

The room floods with light and reveals the panicked expression of a man with both arms up in surrender. Seongwoo’s eyes gloss over the phone in his hand and drop to his bare chest. Oh. _Oh._ He’s naked. Seongwoo rubs his eyes and opens his mouth, but no sound comes out.

“Uh, hi,” the man says, slowly lowering his arms. “I—”

He clears his throat and tries again. This time, the scream does rip out of Seongwoo and echoes throughout the apartment. 

Flinching, the man hastens to cover his ears. The reaction is such a _human_ one that it brings too many questions to mind.

Seongwoo's heart sinks. Honestly, he would have preferred the ghost.

 

* * *

 

An assessment of Seongwoo's current situation:

  1. It’s one am.
  2. He is in his pajamas, which happen to have a hole in the crotch. 
  3. Staring at a strange man sitting on his couch in just his underwear. 
  4. Said pair of underwear looks way too familiar for Seongwoo’s liking. 
  5. The man in question also has a really nice body, Seongwoo can’t help but notice, and he’s both jealous and attracted. And sleepy, so he can’t be blamed for his intrusive thoughts re: the man’s abs. 
  6. Oh, and most importantly, Seongwoo has never seen this guy before in his life.



Seongwoo stands in front of the couch with his arms crossed over his chest. The man sits in front of him, knees pressed together as he stares at the floor. His shoulders are hunched; he seems like he’s attempting to make himself as small as possible (and failing). The hulking shadow translates into a hulking man, tall, broad shouldered, and muscular enough to make Seongwoo feel bad about himself.

Seongwoo has a good view of his body too. The only thing the man has on right now are a pair of bright red boxers (pilfered from Seongwoo’s dresser) hanging low on his waist, giving Seongwoo a not-entirely-unwelcome glimpse of a happy trail disappearing into the waistband. The late hour doesn’t stop impure thoughts from sneaking into his mind. Seongwoo averts his gaze and coughs.

Well. The man’s not a ghost, so this is the other kind of horror movie, his mind supplies, sounding uncomfortably like Jaehwan. He’s heard of something like that before, a guy living in the walls of a house until the house’s owners discovered him by accident. And then he _murdered_ them, so, no happy endings there. This man doesn’t look dangerous, per se, but looks can be deceiving.

Seongwoo shakes his head and forces himself to focus the facts instead of letting his imagination run wild. The man’s name is Kang Daniel, as he hastily informed him while being chased out of his room. He’s a year below Seongwoo at the same university and apparently knows Seongwoo’s former roommate, Kim Jonghyun

Jonghyun is the reason he’s here right now. “So let me get this straight,” Seongwoo begins, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You transferred to the engineering program at our university and couldn’t find a place to live before the semester started, so Jonghyun offered you his room while he’s on his exchange program in Japan.” It sounds like something Jonghyun would do.

Daniel shifts his seat and runs his fingers through his hair. Seongwoo tries not to think about butt imprints on his couch and butts in general. “Yeah, that’s pretty much it,” Daniel says finally. He speaks formally, hesitating before adding, “He told me he would talk to you about it.” Daniel raises his head and shrinks at the look on Seongwoo’s face. “I guess he didn’t.”

“No. He did not.” Didn’t talk to him about it, didn’t text him about it, didn’t write a letter or send a message in a bottle. To think Seongwoo liked Jonghyun. _Trusted_ him, even. “How… how long have you been secretly living here?”

Daniel flinches at the word ‘secretly.’ “Since the start of the semester?” he says, scratching his cheek. “I moved my stuff in during the first week of classes.” His leg begins moving up and down. “I wanted to say hi, but you were barely around then and I missed my chance.”

That’s… _that’s a whole month._ Seongwoo’s head spins. It explains a lot of what was going on better than the ghost theory does, but he’s having trouble believing it. “How did I not notice?” he mutters, more to himself than Daniel. Seongwoo will admit he isn’t the most observant person around, but this is fucking ridiculous.

“We have opposite schedules?” Daniel suggests. He gives Seongwoo a tentative smile. “I, uh, also didn’t wanna disturb you. I wasn’t avoiding you or anything,” he hastily corrects, waving both hands in front of him. “But I’m already invading your space enough…” He trails off and squeezes his eyes shut. “And I was trying to stay out of your way.”

Seongwoo can appreciate the sentiment… sort of. It’s oddly considerate and terrifying, since it led to a couple of weeks of deep psychological distress. Seongwoo seriously thought he was losing his mind for a while there. Still feels like he might. He drops to his knees and clutches his head in his hands. “I’ve been sleeping at my friend’s place because I thought there was a ghost,” he admits.

“... What?”

“A _ghost_ ,” Seongwoo repeats, glaring at Daniel. “Wait, none of this explains why you’re wearing my underwear.” It’s been the elephant in the room for long enough. Those are Seongwoo’s favorite pair of boxers—soft and well worn, kind of silky, and they really help him get into the Christmas spirit in winter.

Daniel’s face is bright red as he turns away. “Forgot to do laundry,” he mumbles sheepishly, rubbing his nose. “I was going to return it later.”

“Jesus Christ.” Seongwoo stands up and rubs his eyes, glancing at the clock on the table. “Tomorrow, we’re going to have a serious conversation. For now, I’m going to bed.” He’s too tired to talk about this right now, and he has an eight am class tomorrow that will be punishing if he doesn’t get to sleep soon. Daniel tries to say something more, but Seongwoo cuts him off with a shake of the head. “Keep the underwear. I don’t want it back.”

Daniel swallows. “I can wash—”

“You and laundry clearly don’t have a good relationship.” Seongwoo yawns and rubs his face. “Goodnight, kid,” he says, hiking up his pants. “If you’re actually a murderer, please kill me in my sleep.” Anytime before class would be great.

Daniel’s stifled laughter and quiet “goodnight” follows him into his room.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, Seongwoo wakes up earlier than usual, which is early enough that he feels like he didn’t sleep at all, but the early start is necessary. He dials the man behind the whole mess he’s trapped in while getting ready for the day. Luckily, Jonghyun picks up on the second ring. “Hey Seongwoo,” he says cheerfully. “What’s up?”

“Kang Daniel,” Seongwoo says without preamble, studying his dark circles in the mirror. Fuck, he looks as exhausted as he feels. That late night-interrogation was definitely a bad idea. “Kang Daniel is up.”

Silence settles in on the other end. Then a small, quiet voice says, “Oh.”

“ _Oh?_ ” Seongwoo repeats. Jonghyun gives a strange kid his key to the apartment and has the gall to say ‘Oh?’ Someone hold him back because he’s going to be committing a murder the minute Jonghyun is back on Korean soil.

“I was going to email you about it,” Jonghyun continues, still quiet. Seongwoo has to strain his ears to hear and still can’t believe it.

“Email.”

“I thought you’d be angry! You know I’m not good with confrontation.”

_“Email?”_

He can hear Jonghyun click around before letting out a guilty laugh. “The… the email is still in my drafts,” he says, wheezing. “Oh god, I really forgot to warn you.”

“No fucking _shit_ , Jonghyun. I legitimately thought our apartment was haunted for a while there. And I slept over at Sungwoon and Jaehwan’s to avoid this place! Did you know their couch is probably toxic?”

“Alright, alright. I’m really sorry; I should have talked to you about this face to face before I left. And I definitely shouldn’t have forgotten to tell you.” Jonghyun sounds sincere, or as sincere as someone can sound over the phone, anyway.

“Thank you,” Seongwoo says, mollified. He’ll accept Jonghyun’s apology. Holding grudges isn’t his style.

Jonghyun hesitates. “Say the word and I’ll tell him to find someplace else,” he says finally. “He’s a good kid, but I get if you don’t want some stranger living with you.”

Well… He _doesn’t_ want a stranger living with him, especially not a certified underwear thief. But Seongwoo doesn’t want to turn someone out in the street either. They’re a month into the semester; it’s going to be hell trying to find a room for a student, and any available ones will be crazy expensive. Besides, Daniel is Jonghyun’s friend, so he can’t be a horrible person. “You’re vouching for him?” he asks, sighing.

“Yes!” Jonghyun’s voice rises several octaves in excitement. “And it's just till I get back, I promise. I’ll help him find somewhere else to stay then.”

“Fine.” Seongwoo exists his room and nearly runs into Daniel as he comes out from Jonghyun’s room. Daniel has a couple of duffle bags slung over his shoulders and an alpaca plushie tucked under his arm. He drops the poor alpaca on its head in surprise and stumbles back, mouthing a quick ‘sorry’ when he sees Seongwoo on the phone. He attempts to inch away, but Seongwoo holds up a finger and makes him halt in his tracks. “We’ll talk about how big you owe me for this later,” he says into the phone. Jonghyun makes an affirmative noise and Seongwoo hangs up.

Pocketing his phone, he picks the alpaca up and hugs it to his chest. “Going somewhere?” he asks Daniel, raising an eyebrow.

“I—” Daniel reaches out for the stuffed toy, but Seongwoo moves out of his way. “Didn’t think you’d be up yet.”

“I have an eight am class, _and_ I had to call Jonghyun to sort this situation out.” He squeezes the alpaca until its eyes start to bulge. Daniel makes a small noise of distress at his plushie being abused like that. “I thought you had nowhere else to go,” Seongwoo continues. “Why are you leaving?”

“You didn’t seem okay with me staying here.” Daniel clears his throat and shifts his weight to his other foot. “I was going to stay at the sauna or a PC room for a couple of nights and figure out where to go from there.” He reaches out again. “Can you, uh, stop manhandling my toy? Someone gave it to me.”

Seongwoo tosses it back at him. Daniel catches it with both hands and holds it close. “I’m sorry if I came off as a dick last night,” he says, shoves his hands in his pockets. “I was tired and irritated—not an excuse, I know, but I was having a hard time wrapping my head around the situation.” Apologies are never easy, but he’s man enough to admit when he’s been an asshole. “Jonghyun and I talked, though, and we agreed you can stay here until he gets back from Japan.”

Daniel drops the plushie again. “Really?” he croaks out, eyes widening.

“I’m not going to kick you out, dude. I have a conscience, you know.”

“O—okay then.” Daniel puts his bags down, looking dazed. “Uh. Thank you. Thank you so much.” Relief pours out of him in spades. Seongwoo watches as Daniel sinks to his knees and runs his hands through his hair. “ _Shit_ , uh, really. _Thank you_. I had no idea what I was going to do if you made me leave.”

Seongwoo stares down at him and laughs. “Hey, you’re not off the hook yet. There are some rules if you want to live here.” Daniel quickly stands up and nods, looking serious. “One, pay your rent on time. Two, try and keep the living room clean. Three, don’t eat any food in the fridge that has my name on it. And four, don’t borrow my stuff without permission.” By that he mostly means his underwear. Just don’t borrow his underwear.

Daniel nods more vigorously than before. “Got it. I can do that, definitely.” He stops and seems to think about it. “I can try…” he amends, smiling sheepishly.

That doesn’t sound very reassuring. “Please don’t make me regret this.”

Daniel promises he won’t, but Seongwoo has his doubts.

 

* * *

 

Things don’t change as much as Seongwoo expects them to. Daniel is either the most considerate roommate he’s ever had or not willing to push his boundaries too much. Probably the latter. They’re in a transition phase; Daniel keeps the same schedule he did before the big reveal and makes sure his mess is confined to his/Jonghyun’s room, but evidence of him living there does start to become more prominent.

These days, Seongwoo opens the fridge to find Daniel’s name branded on leftover takeout boxes and often trips over the shoes he seems determined to leave right in front of the door. Some of the dishes in the apartment are ugly and 100% Daniel’s, who always eats out of them proudly. In the mornings, Seongwoo will sometimes see a half-asleep, yawning Daniel shuffle into the kitchen before he’s forced to dart out the door and once he even comes home to find Daniel dancing to Twice’s _Signal_ in the living room. When Seongwoo clears his throat behind him, Daniel almost trips facefirst into the tv in shock and embarrassment. Seongwoo laughs about it for _days_.

Jaehwan finds the whole situation hilarious when Seongwoo fills him in. “So it wasn’t a ghost, just Jonghyun’s weird friend all along?”

“Yeah.” It’s like something out of a fucking webtoon. ‘I Was Living With a Hot Guy and Didn’t Even Know It?!’ or something appropriately sensational. “I mean, he’s been okay to live with now that I know he’s here, but I could’ve used a warning.”

“And…” Jaehwan drags the word out. “You met him while he was naked.”

Seongwoo probably shouldn’t have told him that part. Jaehwan is endlessly fascinated by this tidbit. At least Seongwoo had the foresight to keep the ‘sharing underwear’ fact from him. He doesn’t want to know what Jaehwan would do with that information. “Half naked, yeah.”

“You need to throw a housewarming party,” Jaehwan says abruptly, slamming his hands down on the table. Everyone in the cafe turns to look at them. They both keep a genial smile on their faces until the other patrons finally turn away. The minute they do, Seongwoo’s smile fades.

“I’ve been living in the same apartment for _two years._ ” If a housewarming party is really what he’s after, it’s kind of too late.

“Okay okay, we just want to meet your new roommate.”

“Who’s we? And _why_?” Seongwoo has a bad feeling about this.

“You know,” Jaehwan says, waving his hand in the air. “Your friends. We need to do a general assessment of the guy; gotta know if he’s worthy of your dick.”

Bad feeling: confirmed. Seongwoo can’t figure what he’s ever said that would suggest he was interested in Daniel. Maybe it was the five minutes he spent describing every detail of his half-naked body he could remember, but that can be platonic admiration too. It doesn’t have to be gay. Sure, his new roommate is one of the most attractive guys he’s met in his life, but he also _stole his underwear._ “I’m not into him. And I don’t even know if he likes guys.”

“Oh yeah, you did say you were just two guys chilling in the living room, five feet apart ‘cause he’s not gay—”

“I said _nothing_ like that!”  
  
It takes a while for Jaehwan to stop snickering. “I just want to see if he’s hot,” he admits eventually, dragging a finger across the table. “Cause, you know, I—”

“You have a boyfriend,” Seongwoo points out, but he’s strangely relieved as well. He can stomach the thought of Jaehwan’s curiosity being motivated by his dick rather than some kind of twisted desire to meddle in Seongwoo’s love life. He and Daniel aren’t fully comfortable with each other yet. He doesn’t want to throw feelings into the mix.

Jaehwan shrugs. “He’s okay with it.”

Scoffing, Seongwoo leans forward and lowers his voice. “Which Sungwoon are you dating because the one I know is a jealous bitch?”

“Just invite us over sometime, okay, or we’ll have to invite ourselves over.” The threat underlying the statement makes Seongwoo shiver. _Invite us or we’ll invite ourselves over without warning._ He doesn’t want to challenge them either.

“Spare me,” Seongwoo replies, wrapping his arms around himself. “Give me some time before I expose the poor boy to you guys.” If anything _would_ make Daniel run for the hills, it would be meeting his friends. Seongwoo makes a mental note to use that as a weapon if he ever wants to get rid of the man.

“You act like we’re going to eat him alive,” Jaehwan says, frowning. Seongwoo gives him a pointed look and remains quiet. “Ah, don’t worry about it, man. The only one chomping on that dick is gonna be you.”

Seongwoo slams his face on the table.

 

* * *

  

The truth is, he doesn’t know Daniel that well as a person. Enough to talk about him to his friends every now and then, but not enough to really say anything about what he’s like or what he enjoys. Living together leads to a kind of domestic intimacy between them, but when most of your conversations revolve around trying to negotiate the bathroom schedule or picking what to order for dinner, you don’t really have a chance to become friends.

Seongwoo knows Daniel’s favorite take out menu and sleeping habits and what brand of toothpaste he uses, but he couldn’t tell you what Daniel does for fun or what his thoughts on anything beyond cats and fried chicken are. With Jonghyun, Seongwoo knew too much—they’d been paired together by the dorm’s RA during freshman year and had to fill out things like ‘roommate questionnaires’ (which were surprisingly thorough). With Daniel, there _is_ no questionnaire Seongwoo can get him to fill out to get to know him.

He’s forced to rely on his frankly crappy observational skills to puzzle Daniel out, but they aren’t working for him. He hasn’t even figured Daniel’s schedule out, as made clear by him running out of his room one morning and walking smack into the brick wall that is his roommate. “We have got to stop meeting like this,” Seongwoo groans, squeezing his eyes shut. He rubs the sore spot on his forehead. “Or maybe I could just put a bell on you.”

Daniel’s laughter fills the small space between their rooms. “Sorry, hyung. Thought you already left an hour ago.”

“I overslept and missed a class.” He doesn’t know shit about Daniel’s schedule, but Daniel seems to be in tune with his. _Weird._ Maybe Seongwoo is the only one failing at this ‘getting to know your roommate thing.’ “Do I have a bump?” he asks.

Seongwoo opens his eyes. Daniel’s face looms far too close for his liking. He peers down at Seongwoo, gently moving his hand away from his forehead to for any evidence of their collision. Daniel’s cologne is thick and threatens to overwhelm him, but not in a bad way, he thinks dazedly. The scent is intoxicating; makes Seongwoo want to bury his nose in Daniel’s neck and take a whiff—

Daniel’s fingers brush over the sore spot, snapping Seongwoo out of his thoughts. He uses the opportunity as an excuse to move away, praying his face isn’t red. “Looks fine, mostly,” Daniel says, his arms falling back to their sides. “You’re going to live.”

_“Hallelujah.”_

“It would suck if something happened to your face,” Daniel agrees, and Seongwoo quirks a brow but doesn’t ask him to elaborate.

“I knew you only liked me for my looks,” Seongwoo laments, brushing a fake tear from his eyes. Daniel stares at him for a long moment, unsure of whether to comfort him or not, before bursting into laughter. The corners of Seongwoo’s mouth lift too; the sound is infectious.

“You have other good qualities too,” Daniel says, turning around and heading to the kitchen. He grabs a banana from their tiny food bowl and unpeels it. Seongwoo doesn’t have the chance to ask what before he asks, “Want to walk to campus together? Since we’re going the same way and all.”

“Sure.” Seongwoo is already late for a class; it’s not like he’s in a rush.

“You should grab breakfast first.”

“I don’t eat breakfast,” Seongwoo says, flashing him the ‘victory’ sign. His mornings usually consist of waking up, getting dressed, and running out the door because he always seems to oversleep by five or ten minutes. It’s not a good morning if your adrenaline doesn’t get pumping right as you leave the house.

Daniel looks horrified, absolutely betrayed by his statement. “You should _eat,_ ” he says, shaking the banana at him. Seongwoo presses his lips together. “Take a fruit or something to eat on the way.”

“Please don’t preach at me like I don’t know you have a pocket full of candy you’re going to eat the minute I’m gone.”

Daniel pulls his hand back and takes a bite of his banana. “Touche,” he mutters through a full mouth.

They leave once Daniel is finished. Seongwoo takes his time outside, basking in the sunlight, and Daniel shortens his stride so they’re walking side by side. His hands keep bumping against Seongwoo’s—probably not on purpose, he thinks, but he wants to laugh every time it does happen and Daniel mutters a quick ‘sorry!’ to diffuse the tension. _I’m not bothered_ , he almost says. But that might make it more uncomfortable. Better to pretend he didn’t notice.

But aside from brief periods of awkwardness, Daniel keeps the conversation going. Seongwoo calls it a conversation because of his occasional input, but it’s more like a monologue. Daniel is a constant talker. Seongwoo thought he was bad, but Daniel is worse. After living with Jonghyun for so long, it’s something to get used to, but Seongwoo doesn’t mind it. Daniel’s voice has a soothing quality to it; it’s warm and heavy, like a blanket, and he gets used to it quickly.

As Daniel finishes a story about a dream he had where his cat was teaching all his classes (and gave him an F), Seongwoo seizes on the opportunity to get to know him beyond the feline manifestations of his weird subconscious. “So, join any clubs yet?” The moment it’s out of his mouth, he wants to take it back. “I mean, what do you do for fun around here? You can’t be working and studying all the time.”

“Uh, well…” Daniel clutches the straps of his bag. “I dunno?” Catching Seongwoo’s unimpressed expression, he chuckles. “I’m serious. I guess I dance, and I like movies… mangas… football too, but I haven’t found anyone to play with here in Seoul, so I mostly watch.”

“You dance?” Seongwoo doesn’t know why he’s so surprised. Daniel has that sort of build; he can imagine him b-boying or something.

His instincts are spot on. “Uh, yeah. I did b-boying back in Busan. I joined a dance crew here too, but we’re just starting some stuff slowly.”

 _Shit_ , Seongwoo thinks. Dancers are his weakness. Dancers and guys with thick, muscular thighs, which a quick downwards flick of the eyes confirms that Daniel also possesses. But he’s not going to lust after his new roommate just because he dances and smells good and has a voice that Seongwoo can lose himself in. After the Wookiee, he promised himself he would have some pride.

“I dance too,” he says quickly, moving on from the momentary bad thought. “Street dancing mostly, but I did perform with a couple of people back in high school. No big deal, we were pretty much goofing off together and having fun, but I liked it.”

It’s Daniel’s turn to look surprised. Eyes widening, he grabs Seongwoo’s arm and says, “You should check out my crew, then! I want to see you dance sometime.”

“My sister says I don’t play well with other people,” Seongwoo says ruefully, and Daniel withdraws, looking disappointed. Seongwoo bumps his shoulder against his and grins. “But hey, if you guys ever perform somewhere, invite me. I want to see what you got.”

After a brief moment of hesitation, Daniel smiles back. “Deal.”

They reach Seongwoo’s building before long. Daniel stops outside the doors and waves at him. “I’m going that way,” he says, pointing back over his shoulder. Seongwoo laughs and shakes his head. Daniel didn’t have to walk with Seongwoo the whole way. Seems counter-productive, if misguidedly sweet. “Thanks for, uh, talking to me, by the way. I… want to get closer to you but I don’t know how,” Daniel adds, almost embarrassedly. He brushes his fringe out of his eyes and avoids looking at Seongwoo. “And… thanks for not kicking me out, Seongwoo hyung. Even though I know I’m probably annoying—”

“I don’t think you’re annoying.” Fuck, that’s actually kind of cute. Seongwoo’s face is warm. “And the same goes for me. We’re going to be living together for the next year, so it would be nice if we were friends.” He breaks off and covers his face. “God, we sound like we’re at the end of a blind date.”

Daniel laughs. He laughs all the time, Seongwoo realizes, and not the polite, restrained laughter either. He’ll laugh with his whole body, throwing himself forward or back, clapping his hands, hitting whoever’s closest to him because he can’t contain it in his own body. His face transforms into that of a kid’s, and the pure joy that seems to ooze out of him makes Seongwoo want to laugh too. “Kinda, but I’m relieved.”

“Me too. I’m glad you were the lurking around my place in the end.” The weird thing is that Seongwoo means what he says; he’s glad it wasn’t a ghost after all.

He doesn’t want to dig too deep into it.

 

* * *

 

Daniel's stuff slowly starts encroaching into the rest of the apartment. Seongwoo views it as a sign he’s growing more comfortable with living here in general. It comes with its pros and cons. Pros: Seongwoo and Daniel hang out more often these days, since they’ve managed to successfully break the ice. Cons: Daniel’s mess migrates out of his room. Seongwoo finds piles of candy wrappers in the living room Daniel’s dirty clothes strewn everywhere, and Jonghyun’s manga shoved into the sides of the couch. “It’s like Jonghyun never left,” Seongwoo says sarcastically.

In spite of Daniel’s insistence, the Roomba _cannot_ handle the mess on its own. “Robots can do everything,” Daniel says seriously, and Seongwoo gives up on trying to explain that the Roomba is just one small vacuum cleaner, not a robot god. Cleaning up after Daniel falls to Seongwoo then, who does his best not point out that this is a violation of the rules.

He’s halfway through gathering up all of Daniel’s dirty clothes to put them for laundry when he hears the door open. “I’m home!” Daniel yells from the entryway.

“Welcome back,” Seongwoo calls out. Daniel pads into view, looking usually cheerful. He stops in his tracks when he spots Seongwoo standing there with an armful of his clothes and tilts his head to the side. “I’m apparently playing housewife this evening,” Seongwoo explains, shrugging.

“I think you make a good one.”

 _“Cheeky._ ” He dumps the clothes into Daniel’s arms and throws himself down on the couch. “I was going to watch a movie but your crap was bothering me. I thought we had rules about this?” Seongwoo glances up and narrows his eyes. “And are you wearing my hoodie right now?”

“Sorry, hyung.” Daniel vanishes into his room for a couple of seconds and comes back, doing his best to look apologetic. “It won’t happen again.”

“Yes it will.” Daniel’s face splits into a satisfied grin. Seongwoo rolls his eyes. He’s convinced Daniel might actually be an evil mastermind. “Anyways, what are you doing here? I thought you had work today.”

“I traded shifts with Dongho hyung,” he explains, shedding Seongwoo’s hoodie and throwing it on the couch. The shirt underneath is Seongwoo’s too. He has got to stop letting Daniel go through his laundry. Ignoring Seongwoo’s small noise of distress, Daniel flops down beside him. “He’s taking next Thursday off so I’m working then.”

“Oh. Okay, good to know.” Thursday nights are Chinese food nights, and while it’s not as fun eating alone, he appreciates the heads up. He’ll find a way to manage somehow. “Want to watch a movie with me, then? We can order pizza.”

Daniel’s face lights up at the mention of pizza, but clouds over as he pulls out his wallet. “I don’t get paid till next week...:”

Seongwoo waves him off. “It’s cool. This one is on me, and you can grab the next one.” The idea was his and he’s the one who wants the pizza anyway.

“Then can you get the meat supreme? With stuffed crust. Oh, and no shellfish because—”

“You’re allergic, gotcha.” Seongwoo pulls up his phone to order while Daniel scrolls through Netflix to find something to watch. He eventually settles on some superhero movie Seongwoo’s never even heard of, but he looks so excited about it, Seongwoo doesn’t have the heart to tell him to put something else on.

“Trust me, it’s good!” Daniel says confidently. Seongwoo does (despite his better judgement) and regrets it later. Daniel’s an awful person to watch a movie with, as he quickly learns. He talks through the whole thing, distracting Seongwoo with his random anecdotes and observations until Seongwoo has no idea what he actually watched.

They make it through a grand total of three movies together: Daniel is scrolling through his phone for most of number two (Seongwoo’s choice) and falls asleep at the beginning of number three, a horror movie of his choice. However, Seongwoo’s the one who gets trapped into watching till the end. He can usually stomach moderately scary stuff, but his tolerance has been lowered because of recent events and he seriously doubts he’ll be able to sleep tonight.

He hits pause in the middle of the credits and glances over. “Daniel?” he whispers, poking the other man’s cheek. Daniel’s dead to the world and doesn’t even flinch at the contact. Seongwoo pokes his cheek again and moves his hand up to brush the hair out of his face. He looks five years younger, Seongwoo thinks, and innocent and peaceful. Seongwoo pats him on the head and he stirs, shifting closer to the edge with a disgruntled expression.

Seongwoo smoothes away the frown between Daniel’s eyebrows and stands up. He looks cute, but the next minute, Daniel snores and shatters the illusion. Unbidden, a laugh spills from Seongwoo’s mouth. “Really couldn’t let me have the moment, could you,” he says. It’s better this way, though. He needs to stop feeling soft for his roommate. Jaehwan would be too smug if he ever found out.

He tosses a blanket over Daniel and switches the tv off before dragging his covers out of his room and lying down on the ground. Daniel’s hand hangs over the edge of the couch, and after some hesitation, Seongwoo grasps it before closing his eyes.

Daniel moves around in his sleep, but he never lets go of Seongwoo’s hand.

 

* * *

  

One thing Seongwoo hates about progressing further into the semester is how busy he gets. He barely has time to sleep or even eat while juggling three different group projects for three different _ass-kickingly_ hard classes. Daniel is busy too; his schedule seems to be full up with school, dance, and work.

They don’t see other that often despite living together, so they take to using sticky notes to communicate. Some of them make sense like _can you handle the recycling_ (Seongwoo, during the brief few moments he stops by at home to drop off his stuff before heading out again) and _borrowed your tracksuit sorry lol_ (Daniel, for… reasons that probably have to do with avoiding laundry day).

Others are unexpected and confusing, like the one Seongwoo discovers on a covered plate in the morning. 

 

> _Made sandwiches this morning and saved one for you. Hyung, you should really start eating breakfast; it's the most important meal of the day. Don’t skip meals!_
> 
> _See you in the evening._
> 
> _— Niel_ (and then a doodle of a cat).

He stares at the sandwich. It looks unappetizing. Seongwoo lifts the slice of bread on top and squints down at the weird combination of what looks like _everything in the fridge_ and lets it fall back down. Seongwoo _really_ doesn’t want to eat it, but one more look at the note has him swallowing and taking a bite. As expected, it tastes disgusting; Daniel’s tastebuds remain a mystery to him. But he appreciates the thought and the effort, so he does his best to polish it up before heading out.

He pockets the note too. The cat doodle is cute.

 **ong seongwoo**  (9:03 AM):  
hey  
thanks for the sandwich  
though i am a grown man? i can take care of myself

 **kang daniel** (9:11 AM):  
no problem  
lol i know but i just want to do something nice

 **ong seongwoo**  (9:15 AM):  
actually  
did you make it specifically for me or did you make it for yourself and realize you had extra so you decided to give my your leftovers

 **kang daniel** (9:16 AM):  
can you please just accept my heart

 **ong seongwoo**  (9:17 AM):  
listen  
this is important  
i need to know how i should reciprocate

 **kang daniel**  (9:20 AM):  
what

 **ong seongwoo**  (9:21 AM):  
like do i need to pay you back for this proportionate to the amount of effort you put in or should i just forget about it

 

 **kang daniel**  (9:23 AM):  
ㅋㅋㅋ  
i made it specially for you ~^^

 **ong seongwoo**  (9:25 AM):  
fuck  
okay  
the big guns it is  
clear your evening next friday

 **kang daniel**  (9:28 AM):  
?????

 **ong seongwoo**  (9:30 AM):  
just do it  
trust me

 **kang daniel**  (9:32 AM):  
…  
i’ll try

 

* * *

 

“I took the evening off work,” Daniel announces. He dumps his bag on the couch and makes a beeline for the kitchen to get himself some water. Chugging down a couple of glasses, he rinses his cup out in the sink before turning back to Seongwoo with a grin. “I hope whatever you got planned is worth it.”

Seongwoo looks up from his laptop. “Wait, fuck. Seriously?” His hand knocks against the cup of coffee resting near his books, and he yelps and quickly tries to mop up as much as he can with his sleeve. Daniel rushes over with a wad of paper towels and takes care of the spill while Seongwoo peels his sleeve away from sticking to his skin. “Shit. Uh, You didn’t have to. If you had to work we could have done another day.”

Daniel smirks. “Where did all the confidence from earlier go?” he asks, straightening up.

Seongwoo shrugs. “The cake is a lie.” The sudden flood of guilt makes him woozy. He was mostly joking about the big grand gesture; what he has planned isn’t all that impressive.

“It’s fine,” Daniel says, as if he can head his mind. He tosses the towels in the trash and washes his hands in the sink. “I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. You know what they say, grab the… something by the… _something_.”

“Yeah, please don’t grab my something.” Daniel cracks up in the background. “I’ll just, um, go change then. Give me a couple of minutes.”

“We’re going out?” Daniel asks, his laughter fading.

“For a bit, yeah. Just wait.”

Daniel looks perplexed when Seongwoo leads him to the grocery store with a list in hand. “You didn’t tell me you were going to cook,” he says, peering at the list. Seongwoo’s handwriting is tiny and messy; Daniel leans forward and rests his chin on Seongwoo’s shoulder in order to see better. “Onions, green onions, pork belly…”

“It’s for kimchi-jjigae,” Seongwoo explains. “I thought it might be nice to actually eat, you know, home cooked food for once.”

“That sounds dangerous. The whole cooking thing.”

Seongwoo pauses and glares at him. The effect is ruined somewhat by the green onions cradled in his arms. “Daniel, I repeat: I am a grown man. I know how to use the kitchen.” Not well—his repertoire is limited to cooking two or three things—but it’s enough that Seongwoo isn’t going to burn down the apartment or anything.

“I know, but… this makes my sandwich look bad.” Daniel sulks and wanders off into another aisle, leaving Seongwoo to chase after him once he’s finished with the produce and the meat.

“What? No, I loved the sandwich. That sandwich was my life.” He’s glad those high school drama classes have him the ability to lie through his teeth with a straight face. From the way Daniel's face lights up at his words, he's grateful for it.

"Whatever you say." But Daniel sounds pleased and Seongwoo swallows a laugh at how easy he is to understand.

They finish up quickly after that. The only minor hiccup in their trip is Daniel's persistent attempts to fill the basket with crap they do not need—mostly snacks and candy—and Seongwoo's exasperated sighing as he returns them to the shelves. Despite his best efforts to police their purchases, Daniel ends up sneaking a bag of jelly past Seongwoo, who only notices it after he's paid.

Back at the apartment, Seongwoo pulls out a crinkly apron from one of the drawers and attempts to put it on. He struggles to reach around and tie the strings properly, but Daniel’s there to take care of them before he even gets the chance to ask. Seongwoo can feel his breath at the back of his neck while he works and tries not to shiver. He should be used to the proximity by now. They’ve been living together for a couple of months and Daniel is a pretty touchy-feely person in general.

But Seongwoo gets _flustered_ every time Daniel gets close like this and he can’t explain why. He could, maybe, he just hasn’t looked into it. Feelings like these are probably best left ignored.

It was different with Jonghyun, though. They could wrestle for hours over the remote or cuddle up in front of the television and he wouldn’t feel a thing. But with Daniel behind him, humming under his breath as he knots the string, Seongwoo is shaken.

Distantly, he wonders if Daniel feels anything.

Seongwoo pushes those thoughts out of his head as Daniel steps back with a flourish. "Cute," Daniel says and gives him two thumbs up. Seongwoo swats his hands away and chooses not to ask what or why.

“You can hang around if you want,” he tells Daniel, bringing the ingredients to the kitchen. “But don’t touch anything. And prepare your taste buds for culinary heaven because I did not come here to play around.” Seongwoo expects Daniel to return to his room or switch on the tv while he waits for the food (since watching him cook can’t be that exciting), but Daniel pulls out a chair and takes a seat. His gaze is heavy with interest as he tracks Seongwoo’s movements.

He starts chopping up the ingredients and goes at a steady pace until he begins to feel self-conscious under the weight of Daniel’s eyes. “What?” Seongwoo asks eventually, knife in hand. Daniel blinks and shakes his head.

“Nothing, nothing!” Daniel fights a losing battle against his grin. “Just trying to figure out what your secret is.”

“Secret?”

“Yeah, secret. The big, dark, freaky thing you’re hiding behind the pretty face.” He leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees. “No one can be _this_ perfect; you need have some kind of flaw.”

"I regret to inform you that I am, in fact, flawless," Seongwoo says solemnly. He waits for Daniel to finish chortling before continuing. “But seriously, I have tons of flaws.” Nobody’s perfect, least of all him. “Uhhhh, I’m always late to stuff, I talk too much about stupid things, I’m not good at comforting people, I’m not funny, the list can go on. Why do you care, though?”

Daniel hesitates, choosing his words carefully. “I don’t know. You have that feel. Like, you’re tall, you’re handsome, you dance, you can talk well, you’re smart, and now you can cook? You don’t need that much power, man.”

“What about you?” Seongwoo tosses back. “You’re tall too. You have… shoulders. You’re good looking and athletic and you work hard. You like cats. What’s not to like there?”

Daniel frowns. “I’m a pain.”

"A little, but your smile tricks people into thinking you're worth it." He realizes belatedly that he sliced the onions too thinly. Seongwoo flushes and quickly sweeps them off the cutting board. "Anyway, why are we having this conversation again?" Is this a compliment relay? He's bad at those, both with the giving and receiving part of it.

Daniel looks away. "I don't know," he says again. "Just something that's been on my mind."

"You think about me often?" He's joking. He is a hundred and fifty percent joking.

"If I say yes, would that freak you out?"

Oh no, not a joke. Backtrack. Daniel's eyes are too soft and hopeful. Seongwoo doesn't know how to respond to him. "You have to learn to accept it when you're as amazing as me," Seongwoo says eventually, flashing Daniel a toothy grin.

"I take it back," Daniel says, chuckling. "I found your flaw."

"Don't tell me what it is; I'll get self-conscious." He finishes with the jjigae and puts it on the stove to cook. "Food should be ready in a bit," he continues, pulling off his apron. "So you—"

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

Seongwoo freezes in place. “Where did that come from?” he asks, laughing nervously. “I mean, kind of a random thing to bring up.”

Daniel has the grace to look sheepish. “I haven't really heard you talk about anyone that way. I was just curious.”

“Oh.” This conversation is strange. The _atmosphere_ is strange. Sleeves rolled up to his elbows, Seongwoo rests his hips against the counters and wipes the sweat from his face with the bottom of his shirt. Daniel’s eyes follow his movements, not inquisitively, but something else altogether. He doesn’t know if he likes it. Doesn’t know if he hates it either. “Nope, I’ve been single since last year. I went on a couple of blind dates with a couple of guys and girls from the department but nothing worked out.” He pauses. “Do you?”

“Nah, no one,” he says easily, though the wording is vague and makes Seongwoo think. Still, Daniel sounds almost pleased. "Been too busy settling in here to meet people."

Ah. "Hey, if I meet anyone I think you'd be interested in, I'll pass your number along."

“Don’t worry about it,” Daniel says quickly, scratching his neck. “You don’t have to. I… have someone I’m interested in already.”

“Oh yeah?” Is it normal to feel conflicted over that? “Let me know how it goes.”

Daniel grins. Seongwoo thinks he might say something that would throw them both for a loop, but he just leans back in his chair and goes with, “You’ll be the first one to know.” Their eye contact lasts for a second too long to be strictly platonic, and Seongwoo feels a fluttering in the pit of his stomach. He’s the first to look away.

Later, once they’ve eaten and washed the dishes and Seongwoo retires to his room for the night, he wonders if he’s being too self-centred or if there might be a possibility of Daniel liking him romantically. The conclusion he comes to confuses him, so he chucks it out altogether. Maybe this is just how living with someone is. Or maybe this is just how living with Daniel is and he shouldn’t read into things that aren’t there.

Seongwoo groans and crawls under his covers. He doesn’t like confusing things.

(But he might like Daniel).

 

* * *

 

He does his best not to dwell on it too much. Seongwoo refuses to let things between them revert back into the awkward, stilted conversations of their early days. As it turns out, he needn’t have worried. He and Daniel fall back into their regular routine without much trouble, and Daniel doesn’t give him an indication of anything amiss either. Part of Seongwoo keeps waiting for something to happen, for Daniel to make some kind of move, but the man never does and Seongwoo goes back to assuming that his self-centered hypothesis was correct.

But telling himself to ‘move on’ is easier said than done. He can’t stop thinking about it, even in the shower. Seongwoo presses his face against the cold tile and closes his eyes. Of course he’s thought about Daniel, you know, romantically—the kid is sweet and funny and sincere and _hot as fuck._ The latter he’s gotten used to, especially since Daniel walks around with his shirt off half the time, but he still gets unsettles him, and he hates his own reaction to it.

Daniel’s his roommate, though. His roommate and a friend. To be honest, it’s been nice having someone around while Jonghyun is away and he doesn’t want to jeopardize that by jumping to something that might not be anything at all. He’ll just… deal with it. It’s okay. He’s not _pining._

“Seongwoo hyung, can I borrow you shaving cream?” Daniel’s yell breaks him out of his thoughts.

Seongwoo turns the shower off. “In a minute,” he yells back, but he’s barely finished talking when the door opens and Daniel walks into the bathroom. For a second, time stops. Seongwoo realizes two things in slow motion: one, that he is standing here dripping naked and two, that Daniel’s face is as red as a tomato.

_Fuck._

“Fuck,” Daniel echoes, stumbling back. “ _Fuck_. I’m sorry hyung, I didn’t know you were in h—” He averts his eyes and gropes around for the doorknob. “Oh fuck, uh, I’m—”

“Can you just… hand me the towel, please,” Seongwoo says, crouching down. Still looking away, Daniel passes him the towel and Seongwoo quickly wraps it around his waist. “Look, accidents happen. It’s okay.” It’s totally okay, right? So what if Daniel just saw him in his full glory? They’re both dudes. “I don’t—”

Seongwoo slips on a puddle of water and skids forward. Daniel instinctively reaches out and catches him in his arms. They both freeze, Daniel’s face close to Seongwoo’s and Seongwoo’s chest pressed against pressed against his, drenching his t-shirt. Flipping the wet hair out of his eyes, Seongwoo leans back. “Shit, looks like we’re both a mess right now.”

“Yeah, I—” Daniel stares at his mouth and Seongwoo’s heart beats faster despite his insistence that it stop. “Hyung, I—”

The doorbell rings and they spring apart. Seongwoo drags his hand down his face. “I’ll go get that,” Daniel says. He stares at Seongwoo again and opens his mouth to say something, but decides against it and flees the room like his life depends on it. Seongwoo quickly dries off and puts on his clothes, covering his red ears.

Their impromptu guests turn out to be Jaehwan and co. The co. in this case is an unholy combination of Jaehwan, Sungwoon, Taehyun, and his roommate, Sanggyun. Seongwoo walks out into the living room to see the table groaning under the weight of soju, beer, chips, and God knows what his friends have lugged into the place. Meanwhile, Daniel sits on a couch in the living room surrounded by Seongwoo’s friends, who are studying him like he’s a rare specimen at the zoo or something. “What are you guys—”

Jaehwan smirks at him. “I told you I’d invite myself over if you didn’t.”

Sungwoon smacks him upside the head. “Actually, we heard your projects were over so we thought we’d come over and celebrate. Oh, and meet Daniel, of course.” At the sound of his name, Daniel waves half-heartedly and shifts uncomfortably.

“Fine. Make yourselves at home. And give me some alcohol.” Taehyun chuckles and puts a bottle of soju in his hands. Seongwoo chugs it as quickly as he can to the cheers of his friends before reaching for another. The party spreads out on its own after that. At some point, Taehyun invites Jisung over, who brings a whole fucking entourage along with him. Seongwoo mingles for as long as he can before tucking himself in a corner.

Even so, Jaehwan finds him quickly enough. “Daniel says you guys were supposed to watch movies tonight.” He grins and wiggles his eyebrows. “He’s hot. I approve.”

Seongwoo makes a face. “Gee, thanks mom.”

“If you want to curse me out for interrupting your time with your boy toy, please, go ahead. Your weird acceptance is freaking me the fuck out.”

Seongwoo laughs. "Trust me, I think you're probably doing me a favor."

Jaehwan’s eyes narrow. “... Someone’s grumpy. What happened between you and Daniel?”

Nothing. Nothing happened. Just a little light bro-on-bro action. Seongwoo takes another swing of his drink and stands up. “Bye,” he says, escaping from Jaehwan’s clutches.

“Ong Seongwoo! _Don’t run away from me_!”

He takes refuge outside on the small balcony. It’s a cramped space, barely enough for two people to stand it comfortably—plus the potted plant. Seongwoo closes the door behind him and leans forward to rest his forearms on the railing, sighing. He doesn’t know why he’s feeling weird, to be honest. It’s not like he expected something to happen, even though if anything could have been _a moment_ , it would’ve been the one in the bathroom.

The door slides open behind him and someone steps outside. They sway slightly and press against Seongwoo. It has to be Jaehwan. The guy is way too persistent. “Jaehwan, I don’t want to—”

“Hyung.” It’s Daniel. Seongwoo looks over in surprise to see him standing there with his cheeks flushed and eyes glassy. “Hyung,” he slurs, “there you are.”

“You were looking for me?”

“ _Yeah._ I gotta tell you.” He gestures for Seongwoo to lean closer and puts his lips against Seongwoo’s ear. Seongwoo tries his best to hold still and ignore his racing heart. “You are really handsome.”

Seongwoo raises an eyebrow. “Thanks?” He’s flattered, sure, but it’s nothing he doesn’t already know.

“And,” Daniel pauses dramatically. Seongwoo finds himself holding his breath too. “You have a nice dick.”

Seongwoo chokes and almost drops his bottle. “ _Thanks?_ ” he repeats incredulously, pressing a hand to his cheeks. “You’re really drunk, aren’t you? How much have you had?”

“Beers, 4? 5? bottles of soju.” Daniel laughs, then sobers up and grimaces. “I’m sad. I’m having a gay crisis.”

Um. _Wow._ Seongwoo really sucks at responding to these things. “I’m sorry I made you question your sexuality.”

“No, no,” Daniel says impatiently, smacking his arm. “I _know_ I’m gay. I’m just having a crisis.”

“About what?” Daniel peers at him owlishly, lips pressed together. “You can talk to me.” Seongwoo likes to think he’s a pretty good listener and this feels like something he wants to listen to.

“It’s…” Daniel trails off and gazes out into the night. After a long and strangled pause, he grins. “A secret.”

“Dude, come on.” He hates secrets. They make him nervous for some reason. But Daniel just mimes zipping his lips shut before breaking into laughter. His flailing limbs catch Seongwoo in the gut and he bends over with an oof!

Daniel grabs him by the shoulders and helps him straighten up. “I’m sorry hyung,” he says quietly. “Please don’t hate me.” Seongwoo just shakes his head to tell him not to worry about it, but Daniel covers his mouth with a hand. “Not about hitting you. About, well, other stuff. Everything.”

Seongwoo moves his hand away. “I don’t hate you.” He swallows. “And hey, if it’s about the seeing me naked thing, I didn’t even mind that much.”

“Really?” Daniel sounds skeptical.

“Yeah, but just because it’s you.” He feels dumb saying it, but the words just spill out of him, his tongue loosened by the drink. “And don’t… don’t spread it around.”

Daniel grins, pleased. “ _Our secret,_ ” he agrees, and slings an arm over his shoulders. They spend a little while longer outside before heading back into the party. Jaehwan throws him a knowing grin, but Seongwoo ignores him and focuses on making sure Daniel doesn’t get wrecked. Focuses on how he may be in big trouble, but he doesn’t mind it.

He’d get in trouble for Daniel.

 

* * *

 

It takes him a week or so to realize that Daniel is avoiding him.

Seongwoo has no idea why. It may be the conversation they had out in the balcony, but Daniel was pretty drunk during that time. Seongwoo isn’t sure if he remembers what he said, but he’s sure Daniel has been carefully arranging his schedule around Seongwoo’s to be out when Seongwoo is home and vice versa. But it’s not blatant; you would only notice if you were looking for it.

He’s looking for it—because it’s lonely spending so much time alone. He gets bored easily, and when he gets bored he starts to think about needless things, and then _no one_ is happy. So instead of moping around at home, he ends up agreeing to head to a party with Taehyun and Sanggyun. 

It’s loud, heated, with free flowing booze and plenty of people happy to see him there. Seongwoo, on the other hand, feels uncomfortable and lost the whole time. He drinks too much and pushes himself too hard to rid himself of the feeling, but it’s just not one of those nights where he can be the life of the party. Begging off early, he decides to walk home, though walking is a challenge. He stumbles half the way, then goes off track into a convenience store once the munchies hit.

Seongwoo sweeps an armful of snacks and an energy drink into his arms and dumps them on the counter without paying much attention. “Can I… pay in installments,” he asks the cashier while fumbling around with his wallet.

“Uh, sir, we don’t—Seongwoo hyung?”

 _Oh shit._ The wallet slips out of his hands at the sound of Daniel’s voice. Seongwoo quickly bends down to retrieve it and hits his head on the counter in his haste to straighten up. “Ow, ow, fucking hell,” he whines, covering his head with both hands. Daniel leans over the counter to get a better look at him.

“Hyung, you’re drunk.” It’s a statement, not a question. Seongwoo doesn’t say anything in his defense. “Did you not know I worked here?”

“You never told me,” he says heatedly. “You didn’t tell me you had a twin either.” There are two Daniels staring at him pityingly in the ugly store uniform. He tries to touch the face of the one that keeps moving around and grabs only air.

“Alright.” The other Daniel grabs his hand and yanks him up to his feet. “I’m going to ring you up and take you home.”

"I'm not an easy guy!"

"We _live_ together."

"You will never take me alive."

Despite his protests, Daniel does after asking his co worker to take over his shift. He rings Seongwoo’s stuff up and carries it with one hand, using his other hand to steady Seongwoo as they walk back to their apartment. “Hyung,” Daniel begins, “next time you drink, please just get me or one of your friends to take you home.”

“Aw,” Seongwoo coos, looking up at him. Walking straight is a struggle. He leans all of his bodyweight on Daniel instead. “You care.”

"Of course I care."

He doesn’t want Daniel to get the wrong idea about him. For some reason, he really wants Daniel to think well of him. He wants Daniel to like him. “I don’t drink a lot all the time,” he insists. “I was just, stressed tonight. I’m really not a lush.” He hesitates, then adds. “I wish I had no worries like you. I would never drink then.”

Daniel looks surprised. “I have worries,” he says, laughing. “I have worries, like am I going to pass my classes, or am I going to make this month’s rent?” He glances at Seongwoo before looking away. “Will the guy I like ever like me back? Not big worries, but it’s stuff like that.”

Seongwoo purses his lips. "I don't know about the rest, but I think the guy likes you too."

“Really.” Daniel’s amused, holding back a laugh.

“ _Really_ ,” Seongwoo says emphatically. “But he’s bad with picking up cues, you know? He didn't even know a dude was living in his house for a whole month!” He pauses and licks his lips. “And he thinks too much; he keeps second guessing what he feels."

Daniel’s quiet for a while. Finally, he says, “Maybe I just need to spell it out for him.”

“He doesn’t know how to spell,” Seongwoo replies. “You should probably just kiss me. I mean, him. You should probably just kiss him.”

They’re outside the apartment now. Seongwoo doesn’t even remember climbing the stairs. Daniel looks at him and bites his lip. “Should I?”

Seongwoo straightens up and braces himself against the door. One half of his brain screams _danger_ , but the other yells _just do it_ in a voice that sounds like Shia Labeouf’s. Seongwoo rubs his face. “Hey,” he says. Daniel waits patiently, and Seongwoo pushes him against the door. His body moves of its own accord; he grabs Daniel’s chin and tugs his face down. “Don’t question your hyung.” Although he does his best to sound stern, he’s too giddy and giggly for that. Daniel doesn’t resist his advances, just gazes down at Seongwoo with a fire in his eyes.

Seongwoo takes it. Grinning, he presses his mouth to Daniel’s. He tastes like peppermint mixed with soju and sour candies wrapped underneath all that. His mouth is hot and insistent underneath his, and it’s a crazy feeling, the flip flopping sensation in his stomach that intensifies with each moment. He doesn’t want this to end and he can’t figure out what the hell made him wait so long to do this.

Seongwoo deepens the kiss, sliding one hand underneath his shirt, the other working at his belt, but Daniel stops his hand from going further. "Hyung, I don't want to... not when you're drunk."

But he feels remarkably clear headed despite the fact that Daniel’s lips make him feel dizzy. Seongwoo’s mouth moves up to nibble on his ear, then trails kisses down his neck where he stops to suck on the skin lightly. “Not that drunk,” he mutters, but Daniel shakes his head and pulls away.

“Let’s just get you to bed.” Despite Daniel’s words, Seongwoo kisses him a few more times and tries to tempt him into doing other things. Daniel stays firm until Seongwoo eventually exhausts himself and falls asleep.

When he wakes up the next morning, it is to Daniel snoring into his ear. Seongwoo suffers several minutes of disorientation until he remembers the night before and what led to Daniel lying in his bed wearing Seongwoo’s red boxers again, his arm draped over Seongwoo’s waist. Everything is… fuzzy. _Really fuzzy._ Nothing is clear enough even for regrets.

He tries to twist out of Daniel’s grip but ends up waking the other man instead. Daniel only opens one eye and gives him a sleepy smile, bringing his face closer to Seongwoo’s. “Morning,” he says drowsily.

“I’m hungover,” Seongwoo replies, closing his eyes. “I don’t want it.”

Daniel chuckles. “Too bad; it’s still here.”

“Don’t laugh in my ear.” He doesn’t mean to sound so grumpy, but Daniel is loud and isn’t helping his hangover at all. “What are you—wait, last night did we—”

“Oh, uh, no. No. You just didn’t want to sleep alone.” He sounds more alert now, almost embarrassed. He rubs his eyes and scoots closer. “And uh, you wanted to cuddle for some reason. And kiss more. And—no, that’s it.” The tips of his ears are red. Seongwoo thinks they’re cute and is filled with the inexplicable urge to bite them. But he’s no longer drunk and can’t get away with this sort of behaviour anymore.

“Then why are you wearing my underwear again?” Seongwoo asks, reaching down and snapping the waistband of the boxers.

Daniel pushes himself up and gives him a quick peck on the lips. “Sorry, gotta go to class!” Before Seongwoo can try to stop him, he darts out of the room with Seongwoo’s covers draped around him like a cape. Seongwoo watches him go and laughs to himself, though it fades into nothingness when he realizes that drunk him really went ahead and did it now.

But where does sober Seongwoo go from here?

 

* * *

 

“You kissed him,” Jaehwan says. Seongwoo lowers his sunglasses over his eyes and brings the cup of coffee to his lips but doesn’t drink. His throat hurts too much for warm drinks. He wants to be back in his bed right now, but Jaehwan called and insisted Seongwoo come out to meet him and he couldn’t figure out how to refuse.

“Yeah.” Wearing sunglasses indoors is such a douchey thing to do. Frankly, he’s annoyed at himself, but he’s also hungover with a pounding headache and these help him pretend he’s less dead.

“You confessed to him and _kissed him_.”

“I was _drunk_. I didn’t have a lot of control over myself. Or good decision making skills, for that matter.”

Jaehwan looks positively gleeful. This must be Christmas morning for him. “You confessed to him and kissed him and woke up with him in your bed.”

“ _Stop._ ” Seongwoo buries his head in his hands. He didn’t tell Jaehwan he tried to take things further than that, which is probably just as well. He doesn’t want to hear the ‘I told you so’ in Jaehwan’s voice. A smug Jaehwan is not a fun Jaehwan.

But the satisfied grin fades from Jaehwan’s face as he leans forward. “Do you like him?” he asks eventually, as serious as Seongwoo has ever heard him. It’s disconcerting. He doesn’t like serious Jaehwan and doesn’t like that it has to be because of him.

Seongwoo lifts his head. "I don't know." Jaehwan stares at him like he's grown a third head. "What, don't look at me like that! I genuinely have no fucking idea."

"Drunk Seongwoo seemed to have it figured out."

Seongwoo snorts. "Well, sober Seongwoo doesn't. He's confused."

"Do you like spending time with him?" Jaehwan asks abruptly. Seongwoo sets his cup down and looks at him in askance. “Just answer the question.”

"Um. Yes?"

"Do you think he’s hot?"

"Yes?"

"Would you be sad if he stopped talking to you or moved out?"

"Yes."

"Would you be hurt if you saw him kissing someone else?"

" _God, yes._ " This one comes out more forcefully than he intended. “I might want him to only kiss me?”

"Then you like him." Jaehwan sounds so sure of himself. "Sometimes it’s just not that deep, you know? Sometimes you don’t have to overthink it. You like him and he obviously likes you, so you should do something about it before he changes his mind."

Seongwoo considers what Jaehwan said. He has a point, oddly enough. “Since when did you get good at giving advice?” he asks, slipping his shades off and pocketing them. “You’re usually an idiot.”

Jaehwan poses. “I’m the master.”

“Master of what?”

"Sungw—"

"I don't want to know," Seongwoo says, standing up. He tosses a couple of bills on the table for their drinks. "Hey, thanks Jaehwan."

"Anytime,” Jaehwan grins. “Go get that dick."

 

* * *

 

It's easier to hype himself up about talking to Daniel than it is actually _talking_ to Daniel. Seongwoo heads home right after classes intending to have a conversation, but when he gets there, Daniel texts him to say he’ll be late; he has to cover his co-worker’s shift because of last night.

While Seongwoo understands (and feels guilty over it), he’s restless as he waits for Daniel to come home. None of his friends are answering his texts, so he finds one of those quick Twitter recipie things and decides to give it a try. He fails. _Epically_. His meringue looks more like vomit, though it still tastes good.

Daniel comes home to find Seongwoo licking the spoon and staring into space. “Wow. Hi,” Daniel says, trying not to laugh as he slips his shoes off. “Hyung, what…?”

“I didn’t whip it fast enough,” Seongwoo says mournfully. He puts the spoon back in the bowl and pushes it away. His stomach’s starting to hurt. “But hey. Long day? I hope your boss wasn’t too mad about last night.”

“Nah, he’s pretty chill. And Dongho hyung ran interference.” Daniel dumps his stuff in the living and comes over, sinking into the chair opposite Seongwoo. He peers into the bowl and makes a face at the sight of its contents. “What is this?”

“Meringue. Kinda.” Seongwoo scoops out a bit and holds the spoon out to him. “Try some?”

But Daniel ignores the spoon and brushes his thumb over the corner of Seongwoo’s mouth instead before popping it into his mouth and sucking on it loudly with a grin. “Whoops, you had something there.”

 _“Ha.”_ Seongwoo clings onto his composure with white knuckles. “Were you always this cheeky or is it a recent development?”

"You like my cheekiness. I think.” Daniel frowns, sounding unsure. “You do like it, right?"

Seongwoo stays quiet and lets him sweat for a little while before relaxing his expression into a smile. “I _guess_ I do,” he says with a long-suffering sigh. Daniel’s face passes through a stages of outrage, relief, and outrage again all in the span of two seconds. Seongwoo wants to commended him for the sheer breadth of expression. He doesn’t, however, determined not to let this conversation veer off track until he’s said what he wants to say. “Uh, about yesterday—”

“Don’t worry about,” Daniel says immediately, cutting him off. His voice is remarkably steady, face impassive and refusing to give Seongwoo a hint about what he might be feeling. “I know you were drunk. I’m not going to hold anything you said or did against you.”

"Okay." Why the fuck does he feel disappointed? That’s great of Daniel, everything he could have probably wanted from him. _Should have_ wanted from him, even. "Okay yeah I mean, that's good. Thanks. Understanding of you and everything."

“But,” Daniel continues, still hard to read. “Now that you’re sober, I need to say something to you.” He sucks in a deep breath as Seongwoo waits, idly pushing the bowl of failed meringue around. “I like you, hyung. And, uh, I’ve liked you for a while but I didn’t know if—well, _I like you_ ,” he finishes lamely. “And I needed you to know that.”

Seongwoo tries not to feel warm. Fails at that. Tries not to feel excited and fails at that too. When he looks up at Daniel, he thinks his grin is so wide it might split his face in half. “That’s really anti-climatic, you know. Do you seriously think a confession is just ‘I like you’ over and over again?” But he’s laughing as he says it because, anticlimactic or not, he’ll take it. “I really like you too."

If he was poetic, he'd say something about the slow unfurling of Daniel's smile, the stars that seem to be contained in his eyes, the clear peal of laughter that rings out, equal parts relief and elation and something more pure—joy, in its base form, but Seongwoo thinks that some things just can't be put into words. And this moment between them is one of them. 

"You like me," Daniel repeats, incredulous and sure of himself at the same time. "You like me. Really like me, as in _like_." 

But Seongwoo waits a while before responding, trying to fight the laugh that threatens to spill over. "I liked waking up next to you this morning. I vote we make that happen more often.”

Daniel’s grin mirrors his own. “I have bad sleeping habits,” he points out. "You might not like as much after that." 

Seongwoo pushes the bowl away and leans over the table to catch Daniel’s mouth with his. “That’s okay,” he says in between kisses. “You’re worth it.”

 

* * *

   
Jaehwan waits a whole six days before dropping his ‘I told you so’ over dinner and drinks at his place. “Told you you’d be chomping on that dick eventually,” he says, grinning triumphantly. Sungwoon gets up and leaves the table because he wants no part in the conversation, but Daniel looks up at the mention of the word ‘dick’ and seems interested.

“Jaehwan’s a psychic?” he asks, taking a sip of his beer. His other hand naturally comes to rest on Seongwoo’s thigh under the table, and Seongwoo covers it with his own, giving it a light squeeze.

“No, Jaehwan is not. He’s just an asshole who got lucky.” A by-product of talking too much, probably. Seongwoo sets his glass down and eyes Jaehwan suspiciously. “Don’t tell me you had a betting pool going about this.”

Jaehwan laughs. “Not really, it was just—” His expression freeze into one of horror. “Wait, is there actual chomping going on? Are you kids sexually active? Were you playing footsie under _my_ dining table and—”

Daniel and Seongwoo share a look. “No comment,” they say in unison.

Jaehwan mumbles something about ‘unnecessary’ and ‘scarring’ mental images, but Seongwoo ignores him in favor of stealing a kiss from his boyfriend. Turnabout, he thinks, is fair play.

**Author's Note:**

> a huge thank you to C & E for holding my hand through this fic and its many rewrites. i don't think i could have made it to the end without you! a shout out to H as well for listening to me rant about, well, everything and word sprinting with me at the end there; i appreciate it! finally, to N who had to endure all my crazed ramblings re: this fic, i love you.


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